R Madhavan would have been Indian TV’s ‘Munna Bhai MBBS’

Mumbai: Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani revealed that initially he wanted to make the comedy-drama as a TV series with actor R Madhavan.

The 2003-film starred Sanjay Dutt as the lovable goon and gave a new life to the actor’s career. Hirani, however, said the film was originally planned as a TV series and he had approached Madhavan for the titular role.

“Before Munna Bhai MBBS got made into a film, years back I had written it as a series. I wanted to do a serial out of it and that time Maddy (Madhavan) was doing many serials, he was a big star on television and I had approached him and he said ‘I am too busy I don’t think I can do it’.

“If he had agreed Munna Bhai wouldn’t have gotten made as a film,” Hirani told reporters.

To which, Madhavan added, “I always knew it (the film) had a better future.”

The duo was speaking at the trailer launch of film ‘Saala Khadoos’, which stars the ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’ actor and is co-produced by Hirani.

The ‘3 Idiots’ helmer also said that he is working on the next script of Munna Bhai.

“Yes we’ve been working on a Munna Bhai script. We have 4-5 Munna Bhai scripts written but they were never as good as the earlier two so we kept them aside.

“Now we have an idea which is taking shape. Before that I have a biopic on Sanjay Dutt and then we are working on three-four other scripts,” Hirani said.

The bilingual sports drama ‘Saala Khadoos’ is scheduled to release on January 29.